Why was her answer considered a 'gaffe'?

[Ban Hammer 13,594]

She's half Indian and ugly... Should have been a REAL Filipina and most of them are beautiful. Why would the Philippine choose her anyway

i must need glasses then because i think she's smoking hot.

[TravellingNomad 12]

There was nothing wrong with her answer.. She could have said it better though.

you're correct. there was nothing wrong with her answer....if the question asked was "how big of an impact does your family have in your life?" or something to that nature. but the question asked of couldn't be in a much more simpler way "What is one big mistake that you've done in your life, and what did you do to make it right?"....the question can't get any easier than that. for anybody to say that they have not made one bigstake in their life is unbelievable. i mean when we critique ourself, we always look back at something we did in the past and we think was a big mistake. so for a miss universe contestant that she has not done a big mistake...or not have any "major major, i mean problem" in her life and just answer how her family supports her and how happy she is to be at the pageant....that was a big FAIL. and c'mon...to use gayspeak in an international competition???...major major in gay lingo means "bonggang bongga"

even diane sawyer of abc asked why she answered that way when she was poised to win the crown.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/miss-philippines-venus-raj-loses-beauty-pageant-made/story?id=11473055

[DaRoq 36]

i must need glasses then because i think she's smoking hot.

she obviously had to be "smoking hot" to even become Miss Philippines Universe, but there are many other attractive Filipino women who would be more readily identified as a "Filipina". No matter how much people want to deny it, there is a certain "look" that is undeniably and uniquely Filipino. Some examples include: former beauty queen Miriam Quimbao; young Lorna Tolentino, Sharon Cuneta, Maricel Soriano; Maja Salvador, Joyce Jimenez, et al. Even a young Imelda Marcos was beautiful as a Dalangang Pilipina. Some might argue that those women have Spanish ancestry, which is probably true, but they look undoubtly Filipina. Unfortunately, these days anyone who is mixed-Filipino is considered mas-maganda than the women i mentioned.

To be fair, almost none of the contestants are representative of the look of their countries' people.

Edited August 25, 2010 by DaRoq

[SuperDuper! 230]

There was nothing wrong with her answer.. She could have said it better though.

I'm afraid she did give an invalid response, on at least 2 levels.

First, she stalled by thanking everyone, which is ok, if you are going to directly answer the question.

Then, she dodged the question by saying she never made a major mistake in her life.

Further, she used the slang major, major in an international competition.

I can't imagine how anxiety provoking such a setting must be. I think she was so anxious her mind went blank, but really if she took a pause to think of even some childhood example of making a mistake, that would have gone over much better.

We are proud she made the top 5. First time in 2 decades for a Filipina! Let's give Venus a Cheer!

ps, I think Richard needs to get his glasses checked. He said she was ugly.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

No matter how much people want to deny it, there is a certain "look" that is undeniably and uniquely Filipino.

I think that's a misnomer. For one, because most Filipinos are of mixed ethnicity. Also, there are plenty of Filipinos that have been mistaken for being Hispanic, Chinese or Malay. Popular culture in the Philippines tends to regard lighter skinned, narrower facial features (European) as more beautiful, but IMO, that is part of the Spanish (European) influence on cultural attitudes. For example, the house help are almost always dark skinned. Hopefully, such ideas of beauty are changing in the Philippines.

[andrea4prez 1]

"UGLY" is too much, she can't be ugly and not deserving of joining any beauty pageant....her skin color is very unique and her stance is very noticeable...i think she is hot and as i said before, we all have diff definitions of beauty...what is beautiful to you might be not beautiful to me too.

I am so glad the Philippines chose her to compete because we've never had any contestant reach top 5 since 1999... imagine those prettier ones they were sending before not even part of the Top 15.

She's half Indian and ugly... Should have been a REAL Filipina and most of them are beautiful. Why would the Philippine choose her anyway

[andrea4prez 1]

you're correct. there was nothing wrong with her answer....if the question asked was "how big of an impact does your family have in your life?" or something to that nature. but the question asked of couldn't be in a much more simpler way "What is one big mistake that you've done in your life, and what did you do to make it right?"....the question can't get any easier than that. for anybody to say that they have not made one bigstake in their life is unbelievable. i mean when we critique ourself, we always look back at something we did in the past and we think was a big mistake. so for a miss universe contestant that she has not done a big mistake...or not have any "major major, i mean problem" in her life and just answer how her family supports her and how happy she is to be at the pageant....that was a big FAIL. and c'mon...to use gayspeak in an international competition???...major major in gay lingo means "bonggang bongga"

even diane sawyer of abc asked why she answered that way when she was poised to win the crown.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/miss-philippines-venus-raj-loses-beauty-pageant-made/story?id=11473055

do you think the judges know the gay lingo "bongang-bonga?"

[TravellingNomad 12]

do you think the judges know the gay lingo "bongang-bonga?"

how much you wanna bet they do now? because her answer as a whole was only part of what all filipinos around the world was talking about. and a majority of filipinos have already caught on to the some of the gay lingo being used. im pretty sure the judges by now have an idea why just about all filipinos on the internet is focusing on her use of "major major".

Edited August 25, 2010 by TravellingNomad

[andrea4prez 1]

they know NOW not while they were judging her

how much you wanna bet they do now? because her answer as a whole was only part of what all filipinos around the world was talking about. and a majority of filipinos have already caught on to the some of the gay lingo being used. im pretty sure the judges by now have an idea why just about all filipinos on the internet is focusing on her use of "major major".

[andrea4prez 1]

they know NOW not while they were judging her

so the "major-major" usage was not the factor why the judges didn't like it...its her whole answer....how much do you bet, that the judges during the pageant KNEW that "major-marjor" was gay lingo?

Edited August 25, 2010 by andrea4prez

[Atencio 43]

To be fair, almost none of the contestants are representative of the look of their countries' people.

Yes I thought that about some of the ones I saw.

[TravellingNomad 12]

so the "major-major" usage was not the factor why the judges didn't like it...its her whole answer....how much do you bet, that the judges during the pageant KNEW that "major-marjor" was gay lingo?

yeah but i did not say her use of "major major" was the factor they judged on. i clearly stated in my post why i thought her answer was a big fail. my comment about her use of the lingo was my own personal opinion. nowhere did i say it was solely what she was judged on.

Edited August 26, 2010 by TravellingNomad

[andrea4prez 1]

YUP, you did not say that she was judge based on the major major usage but you said " come on...to use gayspeak in an international competition???...major major in gay lingo means "bonggang bongga"

only Filipinos knew it was gay speak and since no judges were Filipinos, i don't think she needs to be faulted for that...

yeah but i did not say her use of "major major" was the factor they judged on. i clearly stated in my post why i thought her answer was a big fail. my comment about her use of the lingo was my own personal opinion. nowhere did i say it was solely what she was judged on.

[Richard90027 1]

I just dont get how she made it to the top 5, there were many better looking contestants then her.

I Agree!

[Mikhail 1]

I wanted her to win the show, she got the worst question and there was no way she could really answer that question correctly without looking bad. I think she just got unlucky with that question and that is probably why she didnt make it further then the top 5. I was somewhat surprised, but happy they had her represent the Philippines because in Philippine media they always show the light skinned people and or Filipinos of mixed ancestry(or not Filipino at all) on tv and stuff when almost all of the population does not look like that. She was pretty but they could have picked someone better just like they could have with countires like Thailand and the Latin American countries. I also thought there were way to many white women even mexico looked predominately european, only Philippines, Jamaica and Guatemala were not white.